Night Terrors
by ArmoredSoul
Summary: Post-Film. Because having your face erased with acid is bound to hurt. GCBC whump, no pairings.


_The white fluffy end of the Qteep blurred as it grew closer and closer to his face, the acrid smell of the strange liquid it had been dipped in filling his nose. Fear had long since turned to abject terror, a bitter taste in the back of his throat as he struggled against the immovable metal grasp of the robots who red eyes glowed dully, emotionlessly down at him. He tried to speak, say something, anything that might halt this terrible thing, but he was too scared, he could barely think through the haze of nopleasenoletmegono-!  
It burned.  
Oh gosh, did it _BURN_.  
He made to scream, but the Qteep abruptly swished and he had no mouth to scream with, his vision smearing in ugly warped convulsions as the Qteep moved again.  
And again.  
And again.  
And it _BURNED-!

"Cop! Cop! Wake up! COP!"

He lurched up, body moving before he could fully percieve the world around him, his hand finding a wrist he promptly twisted, yanking hard and hearing someone give a yelp of pain as they were forcefully unbalanced, stumbling forward into his fist. Faintly, he registered the fact that he could hear someone screaming, that his own mouth was moving, but he couldn't understand his own words. They were not going to take him again-!

Something enormous and metal wrapped around him from behind, and he was heaved bodily up off of whomever he'd been fighting, leaving him squirming and thrashing for all he was worth to try and break loose. He was shaken like a ragdoll, there were more voices now, talking over one another so fast all he could make out was his name. The name they shared.

"Stop! Please!"

Wait.  
He knew that voice.

Stunned, he felt himself freeze, and the screaming tapered off into a muffled sob. Muffled because it was behind him, hidden within the confines of the helmet he had not taken off for longer than a moment in weeks.  
Everything flitered back in a rush. The Battle for the Piece of Resistance. Being betrayed by Lord Business. Helped by the people he'd spent so long fighting. The Duplo Invasion. Rebuilding. Rebuilding that found him sharing an apartment complex with not only many of the Master Builders needed to help with the reconstruction, but Emmet. And Mum. And Da.

He didn't register the fact that he was back on his own feet until a hand caught his arm to keep him upright, and he realized that he was shaking. Another hand came up to his shoulder, another brushing the back of his neck, and he felt the others huddling protectivey around him, his mother's soft voice cooing in his ear as she guided him back to the bed.  
"There you are, my boy, it's alright, come now, set here with Mummy a while, it's alright..."  
Gentle hands helped him sit down, and someone draped a blanket around his shoulders while someone else pressed a glass of something into his hands, it didn't really matter, he just needed something solid to hang on to. His fingers ached from how tightly he gripped the glass, but no one tried to ease the tension, letting him cling.  
"...Metalbeard heard you. You left the window open."  
Feeling dazed, he looked up from staring blankly at the glass in his hands to see a familiar face crouched down before him, brown hair tousled and pajamas rumpled from sleep. Emmet tried a smile, but it was thin and didn't reach his eyes like it should have. A slight chill had him looking up further, and he saw Metalbeard peering in through a brand new hole in his bedroom wall, the mechanized pirate trying and failing to look unconcerned. Now that he was looking, he found himself scanning his room, and found several of the Master Builders he'd become acquainted with clustered around the room, all of them wearing matching expression of worry.

Wildstyle hovered by the busted wall keeping a grip on Benny's foot so the astronaut wouldn't float away in his frazzled state, while Unikitty was scooting inch by inch across the floor towards him, small careful motions so he would obviously see her coming. He watched her blankly for several moments, until she was suddenly right there next to him, nuzzling his knee with her soft fur and looking up at him with those huge baby blue eyes.  
"You wanna hug...?"  
The normally hyperactive princess barely whispered the words, just loud enough for him to hear, and he felt the kind gesture flick something loose inside of him. His vision blurred, the glass slipping from his suddenly lax grip as he managed the barest hint of a nod. Warm soft fur slipped into his grasp, a fluffy tail draping over his legs as a solid weight settled against his chest, Unikitty's horn thunking softly against the side of his helmet as she curled her whole body around him. And that something loose became a broken dam.

His fingers twisted into her fur, and he hid his face against her bulk as Da looped an arm around his shoulder, Ma's hand on his arm as he finally, FINALLY let himself cry. Both his selves, the scribbled mess hidden in his helmet voicing the agonized wail he hadn't the will to unleash, an awful broken sound that rang in his ears like a fire alarm too close for comfort. More bodies joined the pile, someone's hair brushing against the side of his helmet while a hand wriggled fingers into grip his own, a funny crinkling noise heralding Benny tucking his spacesuit clad self up against his back. Motors and gears whirred, and he heard more than felt Metalbeard cupping both hands around the lot of them.  
And he cried.  
Cried harder and longer than any other time that he could remember, the collar of his shirt and the edges of the blanket growing damp along with a patch of Unikitty's fur. Yet, all the while, they stayed. All of them stayed, and the unprecidented kindness caused him to weep all the more. He'd done so many bad things, evil things, to them and thier loved ones and yet they still STAYED-!

By the time everything began to wind down, he was a snotty, red-eyed mess, utterly exhausted from the outpouring of emotion so rare for him. And yet, as he sniffled wetly into Unikitty's fur, he realized he felt... Lighter. Not so much better, but lighter, like some great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.  
A hand reached carefully, gently stroking the side of his face, and he managed to look up a bit, catching sight of Emmet hovering over him, Wildstyle hovering from the opposite direction with her dark hair langing loose around her face. It was her hand on his face, gently rubbing away the last of his tears with her thumb.  
"It's alright, Cop. We got you."  
He somehow managed a nod, and let his head droop to settle back on Unikitty's fur while leaning into his father's embrace, feeling Benny curl both arms around his middle from behind. Ma shifted over a little closer, and he heard a wet smeck as she kissed his helmet.  
"She's right, my boy, we'll watch over you tonight. You just rest."  
"...you'll all be here when I wake up?"  
"Of course, dear."  
Another kiss, and he finally allowed himself to succumb to the exhaustion drawing him down into unconsciousness. And this time, he was sure he wouldn't dream.


End file.
